U.S. Army is working on a hi-tech pulse shell which could ‘cripple an entire city’
America’s military is working on new hi-tech artillery shell which could cripple entire cities – using electromagnetic pulses to knock out computers and other electronics.
The electromagnetic pulse weapon would be housed inside a normal artillery shell – and launched into a target area to cripple electronics.
The weapons would fit inside a normal 155mm projectile – fired by artillery pieces such as the M777, pictured – with the Pentagon working on various possible ways to damage enemy electronics.
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An American Army research proposal says, ‘Extensive use of wireless RF [radio frequency] networking for critical infrastructure and communications systems provides an alternative attack vector for the neutralization of an adversary’s underlying industrial, civil, and communications infrastructure without the destruction of the hardware associated with those systems.
‘Advances in munitions-based microelectronics and power technologies make possible the implementation of non-kinetic cyber and electromagnetic – or electronic warfare (EW) – attacks that could be delivered via artillery launched munitions.
‘The precision delivery of the non-kinetic effects (NKE) electronics payload close to the target allows low power operation which limits the geographical extent of impacted systems, and reduces the overall impact on the electromagnetic spectrum.’
